Henderson Buys Gartmore
Henderson Global Investors and Gartmore Group Limited (GRT) have issued a joint statement announcing that an agreement has been reached on the terms of a recommended acquisition by Henderson of the entire issued share capital of Gartmore. Whilst the Gartmore board intends to recommend the Henderson offer to Gartmore shareholders, the transaction requires a number of shareholder and regulatory approvals. Subject to those approvals, Gartmore anticipates completion of the deal in the next 12 weeks. Throughout this process our analysts have maintained our usual review schedule with the managers and we have been comfortable that they have continued to focus on the business of managing their funds. Furthermore, we believe the fit with Henderson to be positive, in so far as there is limited overlap between the funds managed by both groups. Throughout this time we are continuing to monitor fund flows and performance.
Aberdeen Launches Onshore Latin America Fund
Aberdeen plans to launch a UK domiciled version of its Luxembourg domiciled Aberdeen Global Latin America Equity fund. The fund will be managed by Aberdeen's emerging markets team headed by Devan Kaloo. Aberdeen's existing emerging markets products have achieved favourable Morningstar ratings, which you can view here. Martin Currie also recently launched a Latin America fund after hiring Kim Catechis and several of his colleagues from SWIP's emerging markets team.
Threadneedle Appoints Emerging Markets Fund Manager
Threadneedle has appointed Irina Miklavchich as a fund manager in its emerging markets team. The move fills a gap left by the departure of Jules Mort from the team in 2010, and before that the departure of Katie Dobson. In 2010, Threadneedle's Vanessa Donegan was made head of Asia and Emerging Markets, and she retains responsibility for managing the Threadneedle Asia fund. You can read what our analysts think about that fund here. Ms Miklavchich joins from Goldman Sachs' Principal Strategies Group where she managed an EMEA long-short portfolio.